AN: For this story I've been designing the skill trees for Harry and a couple OC's that I'm going to have in the story for the pairing. The only problem that I'm having is figuring out how to have the levelling and skill systems work in story form. If I can't think of anything I'll just have to do a little fourth wall breaking and state it flat out, as if it's an actual part of the world of Pandora. So please suggest how you think I should have those systems incorporated in the comments.

AN2: I'm also using my Head Canon for Zero as his backstory.

AN3: I know this chapter isn't as good but it's a prologue to set up for the real story.

AN4: Any suggestions for a title would be appreciated.

AN5: Unrelated to this story but I've noticed that some writers on this site have started using . I'm honestly wondering what would happen if I got one for these XD

Deadshot (Working Title)

Chapter 1

-Harry-

-Department of Mysteries-

Snarling he leapt up to his feet, spitting out gravel from landing on the floor of some room with a massive arch. Behind him Neville leapt up along with Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, and Lilith Moon. They were his closest friends and the best trained members of what had been dubbed 'Potter's Legion' over the past year as he, and everyone he could gather, fought to overthrow Umbridge's regime.

They had stuck with him through thick and thin over the past year, Neville stepping in when Ron abandoned him to save face. Susan replacing Hermione when the bushy haired Witch got jealous as he stopped holding back at Hogwarts. Most of Hufflepuff was on his side, about half of Gryffindor, and a good quarter of Ravenclaw all had put their faith in him over the Ministry.

In return he did his best to do right by them, getting all the teaching material he could as he did his best to train them, getting help from Moony, Tonks, and Sirius who would sneak in through the secret passages that the Room of Requirement would create for them when needed. He would have never even known about the Room or most of Umbridge's plans of not for Dobby being a surprisingly good ninja elf.

"Everyone! Backs together and if you see them move you take these bastards down!" he yelled, drawing a pistol from his expanded back to wield along with his wand, his friends doing the same. The guns had been Sirius' idea, the man having gotten him and his closest friends a good supply and even taught them how to use them.

"On it Harry!" Neville yelled, his friend using two pistols instead of the faulty wand that Madame Longbottom had insisted on her Grandson using.

"Hedwig take to the skies and call out strays and patterns." He ordered his familiar who had insisted on coming with him, the genius owl as much a part of the team as his friends were. It helped for the fight that he had found a useful little potion that allowed an Owl to form a telepathic bond with the humans keyed to it, something he had done with his friends that came with him. As the beautiful snowy owl cawed in response he readied for a fight.

Everything was silent for a scant few seconds before he heard the rushing sound of that smoke travel the Death eaters had been doing. Spotting the movement, he aimed and fired, sending a slug into the smoke resulting in a screaming Death Eater to fall to the floor, clutching a shattered kneecap.

After that it was madness, spell fire filled the room, the sound of gunshots drowning out any other noise, the smell of hot blood filling his nostrils as he and his Legion fought for their lives but there were too many. They were overpowered as he saw Lucius and Bellatrix step out of the crowd of surviving Death Eaters and sneering down at him. "Well, well, well," Bellatrix cooed in her mocking baby voice "it seems ickle baby Potter really does know how to play."

"Yes but sadly play time is over." Lucius sneered victoriously, the look somewhat ruined by the black eye the man was forming from when Neville punched the prick earlier in the fight. "The Prophecy Potter, now." Looking around at his tied up friends, he silently asked them what he should do. Each and every one of them told him the same message with their eyes.

"You mean this Prophecy?" he asked, pulling the small glass orb out of his pocket as the two Death Eaters gained looks of triumph.

"Good boy Po-" Lucius began before he decided to rain on the bastard's parade.

"Go fetch." With that he threw his arm back and threw the orb through the archway called the Veil of Death. He had read up about it when researching the laws of the Magical world for his trial over the summer and knew that whatever went in, never came out.

"No!" Bellatrix yelled, the mad woman running over to try and catch the orb only to fail, sliding to a halt in front of the veil so as to not fall in. Or at least that would have been her plan if Neville hadn't decided to give her a good kick in the Arse to send her tumbling in with a scream.

"Alright, who's next." He snarked "Please form an orderly line before jumping through the veil, thank you." He would have said more if Malfoy hadn't back handed him with a growl, sending one of his teeth flying out from the force of the blow.

Noticing something he began to chuckle darkly along with his friends as Lucius scowled down at him, "What are you laughing at you useless son of a whore?" the man demanded.

"First off you useless piece of shit," he scowled, spitting his blood into the man's face for good measure "never talk about my mother like that again. Second…look behind you."

"Like I'm going to fall for th-" Malfoy tried to posture but was once more cut off, this time by the sound of a shotgun cocking.

"Stay away from my godson you son of a bitch." Sirius growled, grabbing Lucius by the collar and throwing the man away from him and his friends before firing at the Death Eater, turning the Malfoy Lord into a candidate for the Headless Hunt. And once more the battle was on, a dozen of the Order's finest pouring into the room to help wage war against the Death Eaters but it was war…and war always has casualties.

Neville died shielding Susan, Hannah, and Luna from a volley of killing curses.

The three girls Neville saved were killed by Fenrir Greyback after they charged the Death Eaters, claiming the lives of Neville's killers and eight others.

Lilith had her chest destroyed by a reductor while she was using a healing spell on Shacklebolt who had taken a curse to the leg.

And Dean tackled the Carrow Twins through the Veil, killing them along with himself.

Seeing his friends die, he went into a state of bloodlust. He tore through the Death Eater ranks, spell and bullet felling everyone who stood before him as he and the small amount of Order members managed to carve their blood soaked path through the ranks of terrorists. It was nothing but a Pyrrhic victory though as in the end only he, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks survived as he looked up to see a shell Shocked Cornelius Fudge standing on the other side of some sort of barrier along with Dumbledore, Amelia Bones, and the auror corps who seemed to be trying to break through.

Inside the barrier though, sitting calmly at the top and watching the carnage, sat Voldemort. "Most impressive Harry." The murdered said calmly, rising from the wooden bench to walk down the pit towards him and his tired friends, "But in vain. You are tired, most of your friends are dead. I'll offer you this once and only once. Give me the prophecy, join me, and I shall make the four of you my new Inner Circle. You may right the wrongs this country has done you. They push your friend Lupin to the outskirts for having a disease he can't control. Most treat those like your little auror friend there as nothing more than sex toys due to their gift. And your godfather, why he was never even given a trial. As for yourself, I've no need to tell you what's been done to you."

"Go to Hell." He spat, wiping some of the blood trickling from his mouth on the back of his hand as he glared defiantly at the mass murderer.

"Shame." Voldemort said emotionlessly before firing a banisher at him that must have been intended to send him back through the veil.

That should have sent him through the veil.

That would have if Sirius hadn't shoved him out of the way and been blasted through instead.

"Sirius!" he yelled, his eyes wide and full of pain as they stared at the falling form of the man who had been the closest thing he had ever had to a father. Sirius had been the one to tell him the best spells to use during the tournament. Sirius had been the one to tell him about his parents. Sirius had been the one to help him research for his trial. Sirius had been the one to help him sneak out to get his eyes fixed. Sirius had been the one who taught him to fight. Sirius…Sirius had been his family.

As he continued to stare after the man who had been like a father to him he still heard the soft footsteps of Voldemort making their way over to him. "Pity, he'd have been a useful tool." Voldemort simpered as he felt a wand placed at the back of his head.

Feeling the wand press against him, seeing Sirius and his friends die, he felt everything else wash away as all pain, all fear, all regret left him and left him with only one purpose.

To avenge them.

Putting his gun under his arm he fired up, nailing Voldemort in the arm as the bastard screamed and dropped the wand that had killed so many. Reacting quickly, he grabbed Voldemort and snarled "You have an appointment in Hell Tom and you're long overdue." Before he heaved and threw both himself, and the man who had killed his family, through the veil, his loyal familiar gripping his shoulder to join him in what he guessed was his final journey.

-Jack-

Sitting in his office he flipped through the reports on his Eridium mines as well as the progress that was being made on finding the vault. He'd let one of his underlings do it but those mouth breathers would probably decide that the Pandora Vault was on Promethia or some other bull shit. His focus was drawn away from the files when his computer beeped and Angel's face appeared on screen. "What is it Angel?" he asked his daughter, his tone saying that it had better be good news.

"I think I might have found a possible candidate for the last Vault Hunter you wished for Jack." She said, her tone sounding dead as always when she wasn't tricking someone.

"Oh?" he asked looking up "This better not be like that time you said that the assassin Zero was going to come to Pandora and then he went to Eden Six instead."

"The thing is Jack," Angel continued, her tone never changing "it's two candidates. A brother and sister. The girl, Gaige, is a self-proclaimed Mechromancer and the boy-"

"No, no, no!" he cut her off "I want four vault hunters, not five! Find someone else."

"The boy was trained by Zero." Angel finished as he froze. He had wanted Zero because he knew the man…alien…robot…okay he had no clue what Zero was. The point being that he wanted someone with decent skill that he could still take out and from what he saw of Zero's skills the assassin fit the bill. An apprentice would work just as well though. "I have some Echo Recordings that explain more…"

"Play them." He ordered, wanting to find out more about the two that would round out his team of Vault Hunters for his plan.

"What is up my thirty one awesome subscribers!" the voice of a teenage girl, he assumed it was 'Gaige', started playing from his computer in what was apparently a girl's blog.

"An Echo net blogger?" he deadpanned "Seriously Angel?"

"Just keep watching sir." Was the only response he got before he sighed and hit the play button again on the recordings.

"You would not believe what happened last week. So there I was, just chilling in the backyard with the rents, waiting for the food to be done grilling, when there was this HUGE blast of purple light in the woods behind our house. I ran to the source, it could have had some awesome tech or metal in it after all, and Dad ran after me. What was inside it though was a guy about my age and some sort of white bird. Dad and I lugged him back to the house and mom, she is the best doctor on Eden-5 no matter what those idiots at the hospital say, patched him up. He hasn't moved around much so far but hey, maybe he'll know some cool stuff. Laters!"

"Well this is dreadfully boring." He groaned as the first echo blog finished.

"Just keep listening sir, you won't be disappointed by the end." Angel insisted as he groaned but reluctantly hit the play button for the next video.

"Yo! How are you doing my twenty seven amazing subscribers!" Gaige's voice called out again but he raised an eyebrow at the decrease in subscribers, "The guy I told you all about in my last video has been making some progress in moving around and doing things on his own which is freaking amazing!"

"This girl is easily impressed." he snarked, none too thrilled with Angel's choice in vault hunter.

"I mean, this guy had all of his arms and legs broken in multiple places, a missing tooth, gashes everywhere on his body, and burns covering most of him. Now he looks fine, albeit a little slow to move around, and we only used a single medicine vial!"

"Or maybe not." He admitted and could practically feel Angel smirking at him.

"He said his name was Harry and Dad just got him registered for our planet's records. For the official paperwork we put down that he came here on a small ship that crashed outside of orbit as we're not sure what really brought him here since he doesn't talk much. I think though, that he came here through some sort of Eridian Gate which caused that purple blast. Well I've got to go help mom with treating her new 'patient' so I'll catch y'all later."

"He came through on an Eridian Gate?!" he exclaimed "Why didn't' you mention that bit before?!"

"To see you shocked." Angel answered, her tone still emotionless but he could almost feel the smirk inside of her eyes. she didn't' do it often but every now and then she enjoyed messing with him. Shaking his head, he hit play on the next video.

"Greetings my forty nine subscribers!" the Gaige greeted but her cheer seemed somewhat strained this time "I know it's been a while since my last update but I've been helping with Harry. He finally told me what happened before he came here. His planet had a terrorist who had gotten his hands on Eridian weapons. Harry knew about him but one of the terrorist's followers pretty much owned the leader of Harry's world so they dismissed him when he learned of the terrorist and reported it. He had been leading a rebel group to try and stop one of the attacks but…but he was the only one to make it. He took six of his closest friends with him and they got a dozen trained fighters as reinforcements but in the end only the terrorist, Harry, and two of Harry's allies were alive."

"This is a good story." He nodded, listening eagerly, "Angel, remind me to have someone turn it into a movie or something later."

"Yes Jack." Angel sighed before he hit the play button again.

"Harry was furious as he saw one of the last members of his family die so he tackled the terrorist through an archway that turns out was an Eridian Gate. The Gate was partially unstable and killed the terrorist but with the jackass absorbing most of the damage Harry survived the trip. I'm hoping I can help him get past the deaths of his friends. This is Gaige, signing off."

He didn't make a comment this time, just hit the play button to hear the next Echo "Hello my sixty two subscribers." Gaige's cheer didn't sound forced this time "It's been a few months since Harry told me what happened and he's started to relax around me some more. He's still sad and misses his friends but he told me they wouldn't want him to stay depressed so he's trying to keep living his life for them. We've started working together on different projects and while he's okay at circuits and robotics the guy's got some talent with engines and is a freaking GENIUS with making weapons. Next year's science fair is in the bag with us as at tag team! Oh right, didn't get to that part, my folks adopted Harry to give him a home and allow him to stay here. So now I have a badass brother! Not much else to say today folks, this is Gaige, signing off.

"Weapon designs huh." He mused thoughtfully "Angel could you-"

"He keeps his weapon designs on paper I believe Jack," Angel interrupted him "there are no records of the designs on the echo or any system I can reach."

"Shame." He sighed before playing the next video.

"Hey, what's going on my thirty one subscribers!" Gaige called out and he noticed the decrease, probably since she was done talking about Eridian gates and was apparently turning to a science fair. "You'll never believe what happened a couple days ago! It was freaking amazing! So there Harry and I were, just taking a stroll and relaxing to cool down after a project was being stubborn when we hear some gunshots. Naturally we ran towards them-" here he had to pause to snort, these two were definitely vault hunters all right.

"Alright Angel, you might be right about these two." He conceded but hit play, wanting all the information he could get.

"And we found some guy in in a black latex suit with a full face mask and voice modulator being attacked by a bounty hunter called Dobba Fett. We knew Fett was an Ass of Epic proportions so we helped out the guy in the black suit. No clue where Fett eventually landed when his pack landed after it ran out of fuel. Harry was able to nail it with a small scrambler and it went haywire, sending Fett flying off somewhere. The guy we saved, turns out, was called Zero and he was a pretty cool guy. Mom gave him some medicine and he offered to teach Harry how to use a sniper riffle as thanks for the save turns out that Harry's actually a pretty good shot."

"Wait so he's a sniper with a bird?" he asked, remembering what had happened in a previous echo "All we need some booze and we'll have a mini Mordecai."

"Hello to you, my faithful twenty two subscribers - uhp, twenty one. As you all know, the Eden-5 Youth Science Fair is only weeks away. Marcie Holloway's already got her dad's indentured laborers working on a miniature thermosonic energy reactor. Because evidently all the money in the galaxy can't buy you originality. Stupid rich bourgeoisie jerkbags. Marcie never had to work a day in her life to get where she is. ANARCHY FOREVER! SMASH THE SYSTEM!

A new voice called out, interrupting the teenage girl, "Gaige, honey. Keep it down? Mother's trying to sleep."

"Sure, dad!" Gaige called out again before whisper yelling "Smash the system!" with her exclamation done she went back to a normal voice "Anyway, Harry and I have come up with a science project that will make Marcie's thermo reactor look like an interocitor." Gaige gave a laugh "We're calling it the Mechanized Anti-Bully Deterrent Test, or Project DT. It's only in the prototype stages right now, but I have mathematically determined that it is going to be OFF THE CHAIN. Basically, the idea is that if you deploy a DT unit in a school environment, it's going to CLAMP DOWN on bullying by finding bullies and BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF 'EM.

The adult's voice called out again "Gaige, sweetheart? Volume."

"Oh, sorry dad! It won't happen again!" Gaige called out sheepishly.

"It's fine, dear. Love you." The father replied amused.

"It's totally going to happen again." A new voice snarked and he could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Shut up Harry." Gaige snapped "Anyway guys, Gaige, out."

"Oooh," he grinned "a smart ass." He was starting to enjoy these.

"Good news, my nine subscribers. We've got the first prototype of the DT project up and running. Well, up and floating. I had to cut the legs off to reduce drag, but DT looks way more intimidating as a flying, legless torso of pure AWESOMENESS. Plus, Harry equipped it with some big 'ol digistruct claws he invented that destroyed ALL the target dummies I built in the back yard AND it accidentally got this stray cat that hopped in the line of fire, but that was her bad. So we're making some serious progress, long story short. Ran into some hiccups, though - I mean, I haven't figured out a cool way to quickly digistruct DT into existence. I built a big spawning rod for it, but - it's just - you know, it's big, it's inelegant, it's ugly, it's a tube of metal, you've gotta carry it around, I can't figure out how to lift it.

"Hey kids." The voice of Gaige's dad called out.

"Dad!" Gaige exclaimed "We're ECHOcasting!"

"Oh, gosh, sorry." The man sounded more amused than sorry to be honest, "I just saw you two working out here in the shed and thought you guys could use some hot cocoa."

"We don't need... cocoa, dad." Gaige denied, trying to sound refined "I am a woman of science and ass-kickery, not children's beverages. And Harry is…Harry what are you doing!"

"It's chocolate and it's good." Harry retorted, slurping audibly while the dad laughed in the background, "And Chocolate is highly important on my home world."

"Wait seriously?" Gaige asked, caught off guard by the last bit.

"A candy store tried to make a chocolate frog that was sentient." Harry deadpanned and he spat out the water he was drinking at hearing that.

"Okay, that's too much weird for me." Their dad said aloud "I'll just leave it here in case you change your mind Gaige. And if not, I'm sure Harry would happily drink it."

"No arguments here!" Harry said eagerly as he heard the sound of retreating footsteps and then another sip.

"Dammit, that's really good." Gaige groaned before setting the cup down as he snorted. "Oh, ogh, yeah, that reminds me - Marcie and I got paired up for a group project during Professor Parker's unipolitics class. We're supposed to debate whether the Hyperion occupation of Pandora was justified or not. I figured, rich little daddy's girl she is, she'd be all for it, but no - she never even HEARD of Pandora. She didn't know about Handsome Jack, about Eridium, about VAULTS, for gosh's sake - we're living in the most awesomely awesome time period in history, and Marcie's more interested in reading about celebrity gossip than the fact that Hyperion may have found another Vault. Oh, AND she somehow found out about my DT project and reported it to the school board, saying something about, I don't know, how a mobile laser-equipped robot might be dangerous, or something. Whatev. I hate her.

"I hate this Marcie girl too." He scowled at finding out she had never heard of him. HIM! He was Handsome Jack dammit. "Angel, send someone to go kill that Marcie brat." He ordered.

"Just keep listening." Angel sighed.

"Hello, subscribers!" Gaige greeted before he heard a beep "Uh-hmm, both of you. Hmph. The science fair approaches, and we've got more updates. We just started work on the third revision of the DT project, and while I was tinkering I sliced my arm with some sheet metal - not a big cut, it barely goes like, halfway to the bone - and it occurs to me, I could just jet the wound with an Insta-Health and get back to circumventing the Turing chip with a Hecker circuit reintegrator, OR I could kill two birds with one stone. See, I could never figure out a good method to quick-summon the DT, but as blood began to spurt from the gash in my forearm, I rea-realized it: a cybernetic limb! I could program all of DT's digistruct data into one robotic arm, and use that to summon DT at any time, any place! So I figure, what the heck, and I slice off the rest of my arm with a particle saw. And my dad's all like, "Uhh! Ohh! Uhh!" and Harry was like "Aaaaah! Holy Shit your arm's off!" And blood's like, going everywhere. But a few hours and a few pints of blood later, I built a metal arm strong enough to smash concrete!" he heard what sounded like stone being smashed before pausing the video.

"This girl is completely insane." He deadpanned before grinning "I like her."

"Ha ha ha! Yes! So metal!" Gaige cheered "Oh, and I'm trying to do devil horns with my robot arm right now, but it's not really working because like... fingers... it's a... whatever... Point is, Marcie and her stupid fusion reactor are not going to have –" there was another notification sound "- what the hell? Sorry, my newsfeed just picked up an article with Marcie's name on it. Yuellaghh. UHH. "Local student Marcie Halloway has made a technological breakthrough which will change the face of law enforcement forever." Hm no, I don't think so. "Her new invention, which she calls the Crime Buster Bot" - wait, WHAT? Uh, hello, that is MY design. HOH, Marcie ripped off my science fair project idea! Okay, no. "Crime Buster Bot will use digistructing claws, thermosonic lasers, and quantum duplication to help law enforcement agencies subdue dangerous criminals"?! Marcie, what the hell?! She completely ripped off my DT design, except... instead of using it to stop bullying, she's giving it to the galaxy's most corrupt police force! Marcie! You are such a" he heard what sounded like something being smashed in anger "DAARGH - you complete tool! And the name - that name sucks! "Crime Buster Bot"? Bitch, are you kidding me!?

"She tried ripping off my weapon designs?!" Harry's voice yelled angrily as more smashing was heard.

"What's going on in here? I can hear you from across the house." The father demanded, running in.

"Now's not a good time pops." Harry said irritably.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down," their dad urged "why don't you –"

"Marcie Halloway ripped off my robot's design, used them to build fascist security bots for the cops, and now she's going to try to win the science fair with MY IDEA!" Gaige screamed angrily

"Oh. You're going to take that bitch down, right?" the dad demanded.

"You're damn right! We're going to upgrade our bot, and we're going to WIN the heck out of that science fair! It is SO ON!"

"That's the spirit!" the dad cheered "You put your minds toward your little DT project, Marcie won't stand a chance."

"Don't call him DT any more, dad." Gaige ordered ominously as he heard something powering up "His name...is Deathtrap."

"Nice name." he said with a nod, at least the girl understood the value of a good name.

"Umm... so, hello... huh... my... twenty thousand subscribers. Wow! Okay." He raised an eyebrow at both how hysterical the girl sounded as well as the massive increase in subscribers "Okay. So, you may have heard on the ECHO news bulletins Deathtrap may have... slightly, uh, killed... my classmate Marcie at last night's Science Fair. Umm. HUH! Things were going good, at first. We showed off all the new tech we had added to Deathtrap since our last blog: my "Close Enough" tech, "Anarchy," "Blood-Soaked Shields," the works. All that stuff that, like, really impressed the judges, while Marcie's little rip-off bot could barely fire two lasers before overheating. So, things were looking good. We were looking really brilliant. Unfortunately, I forgot that Marcie's dad has more money than God, so he bought off the entire judges' panel. So Marcie's project won first prize and I earned... third place." Gaige gave a slightly unstable sounding laugh "Third. Place. That is what we call politics, people. And it's really unfair, because I…" he heard the girl take in a deep breath "Okay, anyway, Marcie started gloating. She started pointing and laughing at me, and then she... pushed me. It's - ok that's when things got... messy. Deathtrap recognized Marcie as a threat, so he gave her a quick slash with his digistruct claws. No big deal. That's what it's supposed to do! And I must have miscalibrated... them last night when I was... adding the discord circuits... 'cause the second his claws touched Marcie's skin she kind of... like... um... Okay, she exploded! She's like... EVERYWHERE! It... skin... things, uh, eyeballs, I don't know, it was gross! Anyway, sorry. After they finished cleaning up Marcie and the auditorium we were escorted to the principal's office, which I've never been to before, and I found out we weren't getting expelled or arrested for what Deathtrap did to Marcie."

He heard some rapid breathing before Harry took over, "They decided to have us expelled and arrested for what Deathtrap did to Marcie." The student of Zero said "Which is really freaking stupid. Marcie did what can clearly be recognized as aggressive action in front of a self-defense bot who we OPNELY stated would attack a threat to its master and we had just shown its capabilities. So I called pops and got him to create a distraction. He's good with things like that and I'm not going to go into details about it, but let's just say it involves a golf cart and a lot of gasoline, good job, pops... so that we could slip away.

"So, anyway, long story short," Gaige took back over again "we're currently ECHO-casting from the cozy confines of a transplanetary shuttle. Mom, Dad, Harry, and I figured we should probably head somewhere where the cops and their, hmm, "Crime-Buster Bots" couldn't find us. So... so after a teary farewell...I love you, Daddy!... I grabbed two tickets to Pandora. Which, I-I mean... I-I-I've always been kind of interested in Vault hunting, but who knows? Maybe here our talents will actually be appreciated and we won't go to jail for being brilliant. Third place. I mean, seriously! Bastards.

"Alright Angel," he called out as the last Echo finished "I like em. Make sure they get on the train…and send someone to destroy that Holloway family. Like I always say, it's only okay to be an asshole if you're funny about it."